No I don't mean the city. Today's first reading opens with Paul telling the people of Thessolonica that there is no need for anyone to write to them regarding "fraternal charity" (philadelphia).
Like most of us its not that they don't know what they should do. They know very well how they should treat one another. They just don't do.
In order to do this better Paul gives them three simple instructions:
to aspire to live a tranquil life,
to mind your own affairs,
and to work with your own hands
The first comes from the Greek which literally means "sit still." How often during the day do we just stop, even for 15 mins. And even when we stop our bodies, can we keep our minds from racing.
Second, "mind your own business." How much of our day do we waste talking about or getting upset about what someone else did or didn't do, the way we think they should. Once more St. Paul reminds us that we are doing well if we busy ourselves keeping our own lives on the right track.
Thirdly "work with your own hand", the balance for item one. On the one hand we need to sit still on the other hand we need to create, to build, physical activity by which we add to the world in which we live.
In a sense St. Paul has given us a very short daily checklist.
Saturday, August 31, 2013
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Blame
In our modern American culture we seem obsessed with assigning blame. We try to mask it with the word "responsibility" and even make it sound like a virtue by using the phrase "individual responsibility." One simple question: how many truly individual acts are there, acts that from beginning to end only involve one person?
In today's gospel for the beheading of John the Baptist, we have Herod who made the promise, Herodias who hatched the plot, the daughter who conspired, and the guests some of whom were presumably Herod's friends. On whom do we place the blame?
Like almost everything in human life it was a collaboration, multiple people required to bring the entire thing to fruition. Everyone including the guests who stood by and did nothing share the responsibility. We do still believe in the sins of omission.
We like to try and make life more simple than it is. We like to look at this story and blame Herod or Herodias. We like to try and place the blame on a single person, it gives us a focal point. And most importantly it usually absolves us of responsibility.
We should remember that the scapegoat (Azazel) in the Old Testament was precisely that, a goat, an animal, not a person. The next time we get ready to rail against any single person we need to ask ourselves how many people collaborated in the bad choice? How many are co-responsible? And most importantly, what is my share of the responsibility ? If I said nothing. If I did nothing. Perhaps the person I need to change is me.
In today's gospel for the beheading of John the Baptist, we have Herod who made the promise, Herodias who hatched the plot, the daughter who conspired, and the guests some of whom were presumably Herod's friends. On whom do we place the blame?
Like almost everything in human life it was a collaboration, multiple people required to bring the entire thing to fruition. Everyone including the guests who stood by and did nothing share the responsibility. We do still believe in the sins of omission.
We like to try and make life more simple than it is. We like to look at this story and blame Herod or Herodias. We like to try and place the blame on a single person, it gives us a focal point. And most importantly it usually absolves us of responsibility.
We should remember that the scapegoat (Azazel) in the Old Testament was precisely that, a goat, an animal, not a person. The next time we get ready to rail against any single person we need to ask ourselves how many people collaborated in the bad choice? How many are co-responsible? And most importantly, what is my share of the responsibility ? If I said nothing. If I did nothing. Perhaps the person I need to change is me.
Monday, August 26, 2013
The beginning
We get so accustomed to the books of the Old Testament being in their current order,all bound together in a single book that we can forget that the New Testament is not a book in the ordinary sense. The Books of the New Testament were not written in the order presented.
Today's first reading may seem odd, nothing more that the greeting of one of Paul's letters. Historically, it is much more. Written around 51 AD, the First Letter of Paul to the fledgling church in Thessolonica is the oldest of Paul's letters and most certainly Paul's. It may be the first book of the New Testament that was put in writing.
In his simple salutation we find two words that are at the very heart of what it means to be a Christian χάρις (grace) and ειρήνη (peace). It has been almost two millennia since St. Paul wrote those words and yet we still struggle to fully understand the power of God's grace or what true peace is and how to live in it.
Perhaps today is a good time for each of us to look deep into our hearts and ask where these words fit. How deeply do I believe in grace, particularly the grace available in the sacraments? And do I strive to live each day enveloped in the peace of Christ?
Today's first reading may seem odd, nothing more that the greeting of one of Paul's letters. Historically, it is much more. Written around 51 AD, the First Letter of Paul to the fledgling church in Thessolonica is the oldest of Paul's letters and most certainly Paul's. It may be the first book of the New Testament that was put in writing.
In his simple salutation we find two words that are at the very heart of what it means to be a Christian χάρις (grace) and ειρήνη (peace). It has been almost two millennia since St. Paul wrote those words and yet we still struggle to fully understand the power of God's grace or what true peace is and how to live in it.
Perhaps today is a good time for each of us to look deep into our hearts and ask where these words fit. How deeply do I believe in grace, particularly the grace available in the sacraments? And do I strive to live each day enveloped in the peace of Christ?
Saturday, August 24, 2013
Who?
Many who attend mass today may wonder why on the Feast of St. Bartholomew we read a gospel about Philip and Nathaniel. The reason is simple; Nathaniel is Bartholomew. It's not that his name changed. The prefix Bar means "son of", so the name Bartholomew simple identifies his Father, similar to many Scandinavian last names (Johnson, Peterson, etc.)
While in the western church we do not focus much attention on him, his feast date marked the beginning of the year for Coptic Orthodox Christians. It was at the great Oasis of Kharga in Egypt that St. Bartholomew brought the son of an official back to life.
Today we pray for those Christians in Egypt, Coptic and other, who have kept the faith alive despite persecutions which we could hardly imagine. It was Blessed John Paul II who referred to Orthodox and Catholic, saying in Ut Unum Sint, "that the Church must breath with two lungs."
Jesus said of Bartholomew in the Gospel, in him there was no duplicity. May the people of Egypt have such a leader. And may peace be with them.
While in the western church we do not focus much attention on him, his feast date marked the beginning of the year for Coptic Orthodox Christians. It was at the great Oasis of Kharga in Egypt that St. Bartholomew brought the son of an official back to life.
Today we pray for those Christians in Egypt, Coptic and other, who have kept the faith alive despite persecutions which we could hardly imagine. It was Blessed John Paul II who referred to Orthodox and Catholic, saying in Ut Unum Sint, "that the Church must breath with two lungs."
Jesus said of Bartholomew in the Gospel, in him there was no duplicity. May the people of Egypt have such a leader. And may peace be with them.
Friday, August 23, 2013
Long-Term Planning
The more I look at our culture the more I wonder if Attention Deficit is not a disorder but a cultural characteristic. So many of the problems we face domestically and internationally can not be fixed in a day, a month, a year or a decade. The solutions will take generations.
I dare say all of us know name David from the Bible but how many know the name Naomi. Naomi in the first reading during a famine leaves her hometown, Bethlehem. They dwell among the Moabites and her two sons marry Moabite not Jewish women. Her husband and her sons die. She decides to return home. One daugher-in-law goes back to her Moabite people and Gods. One daughter-in-law returns with her to Bethlehem. Her name is Ruth. Ruth marries Boaz. Their son was Obed. He had a son named Jesse. Jesse was the father of David. And we know the rest of the story.
The courage of Naomi and her husband to emigrate to a foreign land. Her willingness to allow her sons to marry pagan women. Her love for Ruth that caused Ruth to proclaim:
For wherever you go, I will go, wherever you lodge I will lodge, your people shall be my people, and your God my God.”
Four generations later lead to David who eventually led to Jesus. It began and came to completion in Bethlehem.
Patience, Endurance, and most of all Faith. Faith which is absolute confidence and trust.
Today's first reading is a reminder of the great women who were also part of the plan.
Today do we have the patience? Are we willing to endure? Can we choose to trust God completely with our lives ?
I dare say all of us know name David from the Bible but how many know the name Naomi. Naomi in the first reading during a famine leaves her hometown, Bethlehem. They dwell among the Moabites and her two sons marry Moabite not Jewish women. Her husband and her sons die. She decides to return home. One daugher-in-law goes back to her Moabite people and Gods. One daughter-in-law returns with her to Bethlehem. Her name is Ruth. Ruth marries Boaz. Their son was Obed. He had a son named Jesse. Jesse was the father of David. And we know the rest of the story.
The courage of Naomi and her husband to emigrate to a foreign land. Her willingness to allow her sons to marry pagan women. Her love for Ruth that caused Ruth to proclaim:
For wherever you go, I will go, wherever you lodge I will lodge, your people shall be my people, and your God my God.”
Four generations later lead to David who eventually led to Jesus. It began and came to completion in Bethlehem.
Patience, Endurance, and most of all Faith. Faith which is absolute confidence and trust.
Today's first reading is a reminder of the great women who were also part of the plan.
Today do we have the patience? Are we willing to endure? Can we choose to trust God completely with our lives ?
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
Pius X
Today's saint is the perfect example of how sanctity is not about always getting it right. All one has to do his google his name and all the criticism in the world, literally, is instantly available.
But which of us has never heard the term CCD. Some people today use it completely unaware that it was St. Pius X who mandated the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine in 1905 with the idea that religious education should be something more than sporadic, uneven, sacramental prep.
On every Sunday and holy day, with no exception, throughout the year, all parish priests and in general all those having the care of souls, shall instruct the boys and girls, for the space of an hour from the text of the Catechism on those things they must believe and do in order to attain salvation.
Which of our parishes meet that standard even now ?
This Pope lowered the age at which a person was presumed to have the use of reason from 12 to 7, so that children might participate more fully in the life of the Church.
Today, as much as at any time in our history, we need to turn to this saint for his intercession, to assist us in focusing our attention as he did on our youth. For every youth minister, and catechist, this is your saint.
Was he perfect in the earthy sense? No. But that simply reminds us that we are all capable of being saints.
But which of us has never heard the term CCD. Some people today use it completely unaware that it was St. Pius X who mandated the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine in 1905 with the idea that religious education should be something more than sporadic, uneven, sacramental prep.
On every Sunday and holy day, with no exception, throughout the year, all parish priests and in general all those having the care of souls, shall instruct the boys and girls, for the space of an hour from the text of the Catechism on those things they must believe and do in order to attain salvation.
Which of our parishes meet that standard even now ?
This Pope lowered the age at which a person was presumed to have the use of reason from 12 to 7, so that children might participate more fully in the life of the Church.
Today, as much as at any time in our history, we need to turn to this saint for his intercession, to assist us in focusing our attention as he did on our youth. For every youth minister, and catechist, this is your saint.
Was he perfect in the earthy sense? No. But that simply reminds us that we are all capable of being saints.
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
The question of Gideon
In today's first reading we hear:
The angel of the LORD appeared to him and said, “The LORD is with you, O champion!” Gideon said to him, “My Lord, if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us?
Which of us has not at some point asked this question? Bad things happen, sometimes really bad things, and we ask, where is God?
Gideon had it easy he got and angel and fire. We are not usually so lucky but then we don't have to go into battles like Gideon either. Our battles are smaller and so are God's signs. They tend to be more subtle.
Last week I was really wrestling with something, and turned on the TV just to unwind. The friend I was with and myself were completely taken aback when the program touched on the exact issue. It was as if one of the characters was talking right to me. Mere coincidence?
Or Friday night after 13 hrs on the train, my back was aching, I was hoping there would be a cab at the train station at that hour, and as I walked to the back of the car to get ready to exit, a couple I hadn't seen in ages was actually on the same train, and insisted on bringing me home. Again mere coincidence? They were certainly my angels that night.
God still works signs and wonders all around us. We simply have to have the eyes to see. All day every day, we must look at the world with eyes of faith.
The angel of the LORD appeared to him and said, “The LORD is with you, O champion!” Gideon said to him, “My Lord, if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us?
Which of us has not at some point asked this question? Bad things happen, sometimes really bad things, and we ask, where is God?
Gideon had it easy he got and angel and fire. We are not usually so lucky but then we don't have to go into battles like Gideon either. Our battles are smaller and so are God's signs. They tend to be more subtle.
Last week I was really wrestling with something, and turned on the TV just to unwind. The friend I was with and myself were completely taken aback when the program touched on the exact issue. It was as if one of the characters was talking right to me. Mere coincidence?
Or Friday night after 13 hrs on the train, my back was aching, I was hoping there would be a cab at the train station at that hour, and as I walked to the back of the car to get ready to exit, a couple I hadn't seen in ages was actually on the same train, and insisted on bringing me home. Again mere coincidence? They were certainly my angels that night.
God still works signs and wonders all around us. We simply have to have the eyes to see. All day every day, we must look at the world with eyes of faith.
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